Mindy McCready Commits Suicide: A Look At Her Heartbreaking Life

The mother of two struggled for years with addiction and recently lost her boyfriend, David Wilson.

Country music has lost one of its brightest stars. Mindy McCready was found dead in her home Sunday afternoon, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

McCready first burst onto the scene back in 1996 with her debut album Ten Thousand Angels. It went on to earn double-platinum status and her sassy hit single "Guys Do It All the Time" reached No. 1 on the Billboard Charts.

But her moment in the spotlight turned out to be just that—a moment. She spent the rest of her career trying to sustain her star status, even amid a very public spiral of drugs, crime, and love affairs. The last straw for McCready seemed to come just weeks ago when her boyfriend, David Wilson, killed himself.

In her last interview before she died, the singer spoke candidly about the effect Wilson's death had on her. "I have never gone through anything this painful," she said. "He didn't just touch my heart, he touched my soul. He was my soul mate."

Shortly afterward, the star's life began going on a downward spiral, including a judge placing her sons in foster care. Here, we take a look back at McCready's heartbreaking journey.

Her alleged underage affair with Roger Clemens

McCready claims to have had a romance with the all-star pitcher that spanned over 10 years. What made the couple such a scandalous headline? He was a married father of two at the time and she was a 15-year-old aspiring singer. While McCready acknowledged their relationship, the lovers have never really dished out too many details. As for the player himself, he's keeping his lips sealed.

Her first drug-related arrest

In 2004, news broke that McCready was arrested on charges of filling a fraudulent prescription for OxyContin at a pharmacy in Nashville. She eventually pled guilty and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation, 200 hours of community service, and paid a $4,000 fine.

She becomes pregnant with her abusive ex-boyfriend's baby

The following year, McCready had her second run-in with the law. The star was caught drunk driving, and in that same month, her ex-boyfriend Billy McKnight was charged with attempted murder after breaking into her home and beating her. That fall, while she was pregnant with McKnight's child, she was hospitalized for an attempted suicide. "As sad as it is, it didn't come as a major shock," McKnight said of her death this weekend. "She's just been battling demons for so long. I was around her when she attempted suicide twice, so I knew it was in her."